The Biggest Design Mistakes (From An SEOs POV)

by Tom BucklandUpdated On May 16, 2019

I’m an SEO consultant before a designer, but we offer web design services at HQ SEO…. So what’s that all about? Well I’ll clear that up before I get in my rant.

Through the years I have picked up connections with what I think are the best designers in the Cardiff (and even the UK) region. As i have a connection with them I can now offer a complete service of a “search engine friendly + beautifully designed website.” That’s why I’ve phrased our design services like that, and also why I believe people should really take note on the fact that having a good website is only half the battle… Maybe less than half.

The primary issue

When you build a website you are trying to do 1 sole thing – That is to convert visitors into customers. Whether they find your site from a search engine, through a friend, or just randomly happen to click on an ad, the same main principle is the same, you are trying to convert that person into a paying customer or client.

What most people look for (and what designers sell in the most part) is a website that looks good. Whether this be poorly coded, slow, or just poor from a user experience point of view… You know that old phrase “the client knows best?” Well they F***ing don’t. If they did, they’d be doing it themselves but they aren’t so let us do it!

Essentially this means that when building a site you need to lay the ground-rules of what needs to be done. Before getting the input from the client on what they would actually like to do.

So back to our main goal for a website – Converting visitors. When designers build sites on the most part they don’t include keywords, they like using large images, having very little text on the page and generally making the site look like something that a creative built, rather than making the site useful for visitors or to rank in search engines. This is what needs to change.

You can have it all! – Great design, great SEO, great UX. It’s not difficult to have it in place, you just usually have to pay a bit more. Which (in the long run) will save you so so much more and earn your business 10X what you pay (probably in year 1!)